Ann Arbor getting new FM

Ann Arbor Community Radio, which now streams through its website and mobile devices has been granted a CP for a new LPFM station late last month. The station will be on 102.3 mHz with 100 watts @ 31.5 ft. HAAT. “The station, largely volunteer-led, would offer independent music, local news and cultural arts programming, and 2 original shows are in development,” says MLive.com

“AACR aims to start broadcasting on the radio by the end of 2014, and its next step will involve securing a permanent location for its studio, as well as a transmitter.”

Ann Arbor Community Radio is a project of the Make This World Foundation, a Michigan based Not for Profit Corporation formed in 2009. The foundation is organized to provide distribution for cause-related media campaigns. “Ann Arbor Community Radio is created to promote greater on-air diversity as well as support for local voices and independent music on the airwaves of “Tree Town, USA,” the site says. “We are particularly interested in promoting greater diversity on the airwaves by providing access to communities traditionally under-represented in media including multicultural families, women and seniors. It’s our goal that a new station will ultimately serve as a resource for Ann Arbor residents and learning outlet for local students interested in pursuing careers in media and broadcasting.

RBR-TVBR observation: There isn’t currently a community-oriented non-comm in Ann Arbor, other than University of Michigan’s NPR WUOM-FM and student-run WCBN-FM. Interestingly, the next town over, Ypsilanti, offers a curious unlicensed but legal AM station with no call letters: AM 1700 (www.am1700radio.com). It plays indie rock with a computer voice at 100 watts.

From the station’s website: “AM1700 was founded in 1909 by GW McConnell as a small, independent telegraph office operating under the name, The Ypsilanti Telepost Company. On January 1, 1922, AM1700 began broadcasting at 1700 kHz to southeastern Michigan.

AM1700 was later sold to Emanuel Missionary College and would be simulcast as AM590 WEMC out of Berrien Springs, MI. The Seventh-Day Adventist school did away with the radio plays that made AM1700 distinctive and began to program sermons and air live broadcasts of church services.

In order to finance expansion and the construction of Nethery Hall, the school sold off AM1700 in 1940 to the Michigan Weather Service. With the exception of broadcasting air raid warnings to Washtenaw County and the surrounding communities in 1944, the station would continue to be the local source for weather-related emergency information. In 1941 as part of the NARBA frequency reassignment, AM1700 moved to 630 AM. It also began broadcasting under the call letters WYPS although the FCC never officially granted the call letters. By 1948, the Michigan Weather Service was granted its petition and the station was returned back to broadcasting at 1700 kHz where it would continue to broadcast to this day.”

Carl has been with RBR-TVBR since 1997 and is currently Managing Director/Senior Editor. Residing in Northern Virginia, he covers the business of broadcasting, advertising, programming, new media and engineering. He’s also done a great deal of interviews for the company and handles our ever-growing stable of bylined columnists.